Beagles In Winter

I need a blogging break so I've once again called on America's favorite beagle bloggers, Baxter and Daisy, to fill in for me. It seems that our beagles are uncharacteristically upset about the weather but I'll let them tell you all about it.

Hi Daisy! Hi Baxter! Here we are with another blog for our fans. We haven’t written since our birthday in November. It’s been so cold I haven’t felt like writing anything. Me either! The older I get the less I like the cold weather. Maybe we can move to Florida or Arizona. That would be nice but Hank and Kathy aren’t going anywhere so neither are we. At least it’s already February. March will be here before we know it. Then it will get warm and the flowers will come up. I like flowers – especially daisies! I figured you would. We found one piece of good news lately. That’s right. Hank said he wasn’t going to go away to Okoboji in April to do chess stuff. He’s been leaving us every year in April forever. And then we don’t get any beef stick treats on our walks that weekend. We miss Hank when he goes away for a weekend. And we miss our beef stick treats.

I don’t think Hank and Kathy like winter weather either. When we take our Sunday walk to the duck pond we don’t walk around the pond when it’s cold. That’s right Baxter. When it’s warm Kathy feeds the ducks and geese and then we walk around the whole pond. Now we go to the pond, Kathy feeds the geese and ducks bread and corn, and then we leave and go right to the corner for our beef stick treats! YUM!! I love beef stick treats! As much as I love walking around the duck pond in warm weather, getting our beef stick treats earlier is one good thing about winter!

There's a big difference between summer and winter at the duck pond!

Do you know what else I don’t like about winter, Daisy? I don’t but I have a feeling you’ll tell me. I don’t like how we don’t see many of our friends on our walks. That’s very true Baxter! All our friends are indoors when it’s cold outside. Hank and Kathy take us for walks no matter what the weather is. That’s so we’ll stay fit and trim. It’s certainly working for me – I weighed 29 pounds at our last checkup. Not 36 pounds like some beagle I know. That’s a good weight for me – I’m just big boned.

You’re just big. But I can’t wait to see all our friends again Especially the SODA gang! SODA GANG? What’s that? The Society Of Daisy Admirers, of course! The members are all the people who stop us on our walks to pet me and tell me how pretty I am and what a good dog I am and how nice my collar looks. Like who? There’s Jasmine and Savannah and her sister and just so many others! All the SODA gang would pet you if you would let them. I’m too shy to let too many people pet me. But I have a club of my own admirers! Oh really? What’s it called? Uh..the Baxter Lovers of America’s Heartland! Yeah. That’s it. BLAH? That’s the name of your fan club? BLAH? We are legion! BLAH is made up of all the people that tell me how handsome I am and like my pictures on Facebook. My pictures are on Facebook too Baxter. No one just likes your pictures. They like OUR pictures, although they may like my pictures better.

Here I am getting attention from a few of the SODA (Society Of Daisy Admirers) members.

BLAH or no BLAH. I’m sick of winter, Daisy. And then we got the bad news from the newspaper. What news, Baxter? We are going to have six more weeks of winter! Who says? Every February 2nd, this groundhog in Pennsylvania named Phil pops out of the ground and looks at his shadow. If he sees it and goes back in his hole there is six more weeks of winter and if he stays out there will only be two more weeks of winter. I saw that but I didn’t pay any attention. Who in their right mind thinks a groundhog in Pennsylvania can predict how long winter is? It was in the paper so it must be true! Hmm…You have a point there, Baxter. I also saw it on the internet and we know that everything on the internet is true also. This is so stupid. Why should some groundhog far away get to tell me how long winter is going to be just because he’s on the internet?

You know Baxter, that groundhog isn’t the only animal on the internet. That’s right! We’re on the internet too. Hank posts pictures of us every week on Facebook. And we write on Hank’s blog and our posts are always on the top of the Beagle page on reddit.com. We’re certainly the most literate beagles around. Why don’t we start our own tradition to see how long winter is going to be? I like that but only if we can make sure that winter is going to end soon. We walk all the time. How about if the next time we walk you look at your shadow. I can do that. But what happens after I see it? If you bark at your shadow that means we have two more months of winter. That’s a great idea, Daisy! I never bark at my shadow. You need to have something to do so we know there is just a few weeks left in winter. I know! If I lay down in the grass that means winter will be over in 10 days. That’s a nice touch! People will want to hear our prediction if we promise a shorter winter than the competition (I learned that from the election!). And I’m awesome at laying down in the grass. It’s what I do best! Great! Let’s get Hank and Kathy to take us out to check the weather.

10 days of winter or 2 months? Let's find out!

How about that! Less than 10 days left in winter. Great job, Baxter! I’m feeling warmer already! Better move over, Phil the groundhog! Yeah! There's some new weather sheriffs in town and their names are Daisy… and Baxter!